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Well its hard not to be a bit let down after all the hustle and bustle of Christmas and New Years . But I know many of us are wondering just what this year is going to bring due to our very unusual election of 2016… One thing for sure is that there will probably be changes… however, I plan to try to keep busy with my usual activities…and so I want to share with you right away the INVITATION to participate in the GRACEFUL ENVELOPE CONTEST...this is the link to the 2017 contest with rules and how to participate BUT just like on the TV there is more….YEP there are links on this page to several year’s worth of lovely eye candy from some of the previous years….and these are only the winners…or honorable mentions… So give a look and then see if you can create an envelope to submit. The rules are all there and if you have an questions you can contact me via this blog or by e mail. Its really fun and frankly its not about the winning its just about the challenge to myself from myself to create an envelope… Since I am trying to focus more on my calligraphy this year.

I have signed up for a blog called PUSHING THE ENVELOPE…its been around for a long time and its hosted by JEAN WILSON… she posts almost daily incredible envelopes that she receives in the mail… its a great resource to spark your imagination… some of the envelopes would be more likely considered MAIL ART rather than Calligraphy but they are are interesting and you’d be surprised at what makes it thru our postal system…I have included at least a few that I thought were special and especially ones that I wanted to try myself. This one below is very interesting and I had to give it a brief try although I felt a little bad doing it at this time of year ( I mailed it before Christmas)….it might not have arrived on time but I am certain that the friend that got it will appreciate it.

This was done by Celia Lister… and my effort was not quite so involved but I liked the effect. For the lettering was just simple monoline letters at random angles. It was not any formal calligraphic script but it does create a lovely calligraphic effect with the use of colors and shapes.

my envy with w/c between the letters…HINT..make sure your letters are waterproof..lol

Here are just a few more of the ones I have saved since I subscribed… I don’t save them all but I did created mail box where I can stash the ones I especially liked

This is done in the NEULAND SCRIPT

POINTED PEN CALLIGRAPHY? might be pointed brush

Love that she filled the whole envelope with snowflakes and then added snowflake postage..

Catherine Langsdorf’s art

this was an actual submission and I think it was either a winner or an honorable mention… beautiful layout… but simple and elegant.

LOVED THIS ONE

This one was probably my favorite… its sorta a variation on NEULAND but making a double crossbar on the T …….PRICELESS and icing on the cake!…. also the effect of kinda making it look like confetti….just lots about this one that makes me smile.

Now these are JEAN’S letters and her note with this post said that someone gave her the words. WHIMISCAL CHRISTMAS…and asks her if she could design a complete alphabet from those words…I think she did a stellar job…

JEAN WILSON’S whimsical letters…from her blog

So I have given you some ideas, and font to play with so why are you still here???lol GO MAKE SOMETHING…check out the GRACEFUL ENVELOPE AND PUSHING THE ENVELOPE.

BUT FIRST.. I need to give credit to others for last weeks inspirations… the 4x4s were apparently the child of my friend BRENDA BROADBENT…AND then they were taught at a calligraphy gathering earlier this year by LINDA O’NEILL…I just stumbled on SANDEE FREEMAN’S and immediately ran with it… so mea culpa Brenda and Linda…but thanks for the inspiration….

HELLO AGAIN …yes I am busy with HALLOWEEN CARDS AND WHEN DAWN POSTED THIS DIAGONAL GATE FOLD..OR if you prefer SCS TWISTED GATEFOLD is the same card with printable directions….I did my halloween snoopy dance… this is just too cute and again like most of the cards it doesn’t have to be halloween… it can be whatever holiday or activity you want it to be… the secret is to score correctly and then I love that she actually has you cutting and scoring two cards at once then cutting them apart for the rest of the scoring again make some up and keep them on hand for quick bday or anniversary or whatever you need… yeah store them in your sheet protectors…. and print the first two pages and then go write in the score marks…

With your paper vertical with the 8 ¼ side at top score all the way down at 2 ¼ and then again at 5 ½ …then ROTATE YOUR PAPER to the 11 inch at top and cut in half at 5 ½ now you have two partial cards… then fold you gates and score each of them from the top left corner to bottom right and then fold them together to get your DIAGONAL GATE FOLD…the rest is just embellishment… lol

dawn’s xmas diagonal gate fold

dawn’s bday gate fold

my favorite the halloween diagonal gate fold…

I think on both of them last two she cut down on how many layers she was adding i.e..the back panels don’t have designer paper on them …only the front diagonals… if you using a colored cards that correspond with your papers ..don’t think she need all the designer paper as for me it gets too busy…. play and have fun with this..

CREATIVE LETTERS… I found this alphabet on Pinterest…AND best I can tell its a print that you can buy from ETSY..however as I have found in the past I am not sure who AT ETSY you should go looking for… So I can’ t give it credit and I don’t think its hand lettered although I am going to suggest you try it…. especially if you scrapbook or do journaling…

If you are old enough you may remember that there was a monoline type alphabet that was called the AMEN alphabet ..and the reason for that was because each of those letters A, M, E, N, were written in capital form and the rest of the alphabet was written in lower case…This alphabet is credited as being an alphabet that SISTER CORITA KENT USED…however, I was not able to find a piece that she had done in this alphabet so I had to make one of my own… so here is a sample of the AMEN ALPHABET and also a basic alphabet which you then can make your own decisions on how to kick it up a notch and make it more creative… reverse the letters write them upside down, or dangle them below or above your guide lines or write the in lower case form or at a weird angle…

MY AMEN ALPHABET

I SUGGEST that you practice what it is you are going to write before you put it on your card etc… its hard to remember to capitalize the A, M, E, N…AND you can see I wrote my exemplar without the use of guidelines and I did that because much of CORITA KENT’S work was done very free and it has a lot of life to it … Now the next one is based loosely on the quote below …

pinterest quote from Easy

I do love this idea and the quote especially sounds good to me as my desk is always messy not sure its very creative but it is messy…I seem to have that down really well.

Here is my exemplar and yes I realize that on the P instead of both reversing and flipping it upside down…was a very bad idea… better to just reverse and if you flip it is should have been dropped below the line… again why i suggest that you spend time writing the quote or sentiment first and getting it the way you want BEFORE you put it on your cards… however, I am also a firm believer is showing you what NOT TO DO…LOL..so I don’t mind sharing my mistakes…

kath’s basic capital alphabet for use with creative letters

Ok so one final HINT …these are not actually DISPLAY alphabets but they are not in my opinion going to work really well with a long quote or a long poem…ie no Shakespeare Sonnets ….they are going to be more legible ( and that’s always a big thing for me) if you use them in short and sweet sentiments, quotes etc …a little tongue in cheek type thing …. creative would work well with the Bday card that you wrote HAPPY BIRTHDAY on the outside with the letters all wonky and then inside write THE EYES ARE THE FIRST TO GO… lol … my black humor …. ok you have spent enough time here …. go to your creative place and PLAY…

I just attended my annual FALL RETREAT with several other crafters and calligraphers… there were people making quilts…people watercoloring…drawing and using colored pencils in other words all kinds of crafts all together in one room sharing the creative energy that you get when you put a bunch of crafty people together… because I had just shared with you the ORNATE STLYE LETTERS... I thought you would also enjoy this. A fellow calligrapher and friend SANDEE FREEMAN was making these at her table while I was busy making the halloween cards I posted last week. But right down to the wire to leave I discovered these and went crazy….they are just so cute and make a great inexpensive gift … these are her samples and she told me you can find the small 4×4 plastic frames from Walmart and they are around a dollar and you can even order them online in sets.

Sandee’s mini vignettes with watercolor.

my directions on how I did them….

USE THE GLAZE BLACK sakura gel pen (there are no lettering police so you don’t absolutely have to use the BLACK GLAZE pen but because it stays raised when dry and because its shiny it really makes the words stand out and shows off the watercolors.)

make a pencil line around the edges of a 4×4 square of water color paper

using the pencil lines tape the watercolor off so you can create a border

make wavy lines inside the border either free hand or using a flexible curve…I use the curve with the pencil
then using the glaze black pen write a short quote inside the spaces of the lines..ie make letters fit spaces both tall and short.. then go back and trace he pencil lines with the black glaze pen before you water color but I goofed and was still able to do it after the watercolor…
Let it dry … doesn’t take long if you do multiple at a time you can be writing the next one…
once dry grab your watercolors and just play…splash color around inside the square and its ok if some white remains or fill it all in… don’t blend more then 3 colors or ya get mud…
gently remove tape and using a ruler again trace lines on the outside that create the boarder of the square…
TA dah you have lovely little vignette that makes a great gift …
Wal Mart sells lovely little black plastic frames that stand up for about 1$ or you can order them on line if you cant find them in store or no store close… they are just the bomb…

OF course a sharpie will work for the lines but the glaze is shiny and is slightly raised so it makes a better impression.

kath’s samples

ok the first think you might notice from my samples is that I have them taped to scrap paper cause I was in a hurry and it doesn’t matter… second I had no watercolor paper that wasn’t pre cut and so I used what I had they are not 4 inch square more like 3 x 4 …but the 4 inch square is what will fit in the frames…this I will probably use on cards…i did warn you that I was going back to my roots with more lettering I will still link you to some unique cards but if you are addicted to DAWN or SCS you are going to need to go sign up to receive there weekly e mails yourself… as they are not going to be my primary focus.

So you can see from my incomplete ones that I taped them off so I had a nice even boarder then I drew the wavy lines also with pencil just incase I needed more …then I wrote the quite also in pencil then traced the quote , the lines BUT NOT THE BORDERS

then I watercolored the backgrounds…when dry I peeled off the tape and then using my ruler to make sure the lines were straight I traced my pencil border lines… ta dat finished..

a couple of finished samples

kh watercolor words..3×4″

kath friendship

this one isn’t quite finished as I want to use some red to color in the heart at the bottom… cause I think it will give it a bit of a pop and I will probably use both of these on bday cards…

birds and watercolor

I think I saw this on pinterest just watercolor a strip across the paper then I used die cut birds ..however there is a rubber stamp that is almost the same and it would work just as well…just let water color dry again cut some paper 3×4 and then start coloring… I put water down first and I was using these great palette of KOI watercolors from where else….Amazon. Love how juicy they are and how dark and vibrant the colors are against the black…

IMPRESS ARTS AND CRAFTS …has a stamp called BIRDS ON A WIRE..I am not sure whose brand it is …I have it of course but not here its in Fl. but you can go on line and order it or the die that cuts them..

this is one I do have here…very similar but these guys are a little more friendly looking as they have more personality… this stamp is by ART GONE WILD…and I don’t know who is selling them but again go on line I am sure you can find it..

they will be even better for birthday as you can say YOUR BIRTHDAY IS SOMETHING TO CROW ABOUT….or whatever you can come up with.. even they are singing your song… crows sing..maybe not well but they do sing…

GREETINGS FROM THE PACIFIC NORTH WET…yep its been raining but I am enjoying every minute of it and so are my plants on the deck…. and my JAPANESE DOGWOOD IS just so full of blooms I can hardly believe it….

my japanese dogwood in full riotous bloom.. white star shaped flowers

This post is about letters ..these are some funky letters that I found from a rubber stamp set ( see note at bottom of exemplar) and you can see it was quite a few years ago…. back then I was teaching at various stamp and scrapbooking stores… these are called MONOLINE LETTERS because unlike calligraphy the DO NOT HAVE THICK AND THIN lines but are all the same thickness…this is what happens when you write with any ball point, fountain pen, colored pencil, crayon, etc…the tip or nib of your tool only makes one size line…to get it thicker you would have to double stroke it… so we call it a mono meaning one …. line any way this is a fun one and while its old I have not posted it on the blog before so for all my bloggers IT’S NEW… I would rather you didn’t copy it and then mail it out to friends or put it on your blog but I am quite happy to have you link to my blog from your blog or share my blog with someone else. You may of course copy it for your own personal use .

It is going to work best for short quotes or especially names on envelopes you can do a longer quote with it but it may end up looking kinda jumbled and cause the reader not to finish reading… just a thought…

So here are a few samples that I have played with using colored pencils and also colored gel pens…(HINT: I have probably said this before but you must store gel pens once they have been opened upside down..that’s with the point down so that the ink stays on the ball otherwise they tend to dry out…. and that ball won’t move for love or money even though there may still be ink in the barrel.) Pretty sure I have said this before but it bares repeating.

EYE CANDY on my VALENTINE GIFT CARD HOLDER ( MAY 20TH) POST…. the eye candy was a video of wonderful fold which she called MAGIC ENVELOPE and she made it using an 81/2 x 11 sheet of paper…. I told you that a friend and teacher of mine had done this same fold and to my knowledge was the originator of the fold and that was MARY WORTHINGTON…Mary had two books that she and a friend put together and in 1991 I bought a copy of each and they were filled with wonderful ideas for use with your calligraphy and this one was a fold note ( which Mary referred to as church fold ) since these books have long been out of print I am sharing this page from the second book which was called More Crafts…I am also showing you the covers of both books just incase you run across them in a garage sale…grab them quick as they are filled with fun ideas like books, boxes , bags etc…. In fact , you know those stamping cruises that they offer well I can’t prove it but I think Mary may have been the start she took all the ideas in her books and made them up in miniature out of nautical or sea related papers and then went to the cruise ship lines and told them she wanted to teach these on board the cruise… and you know what they said YES. She taught 90 minute sessions in one of lounges on board the cruise each day…. what a fun idea and great for her …..So anyway here is Mary’s original pattern for making the fold note or Magic envelope…using 8 1/2 x 14 paper

MARY WORTHINGTON’S FOLD NOTE ( church fold)

Again please don’t copy this onto your blog but you can link it to mine… and don’t copy and pass this out…. I know its out of print but ethically it still belongs to Mary…

dog bone samples on black

dog bone samples

ok so hope you enjoy this script and now go make something….AS ALWAYS THANKS FOR STOPPIN BY…wire headed cyber toad aka kath

WELCOME TO 2016….I hope you had a happy and safe New Year’s Eve and that you are looking forward to a happy , healthy and creative new year…. along that line of healthy, I have found when I was teaching classes that many of my students had a hard time justifying the time they spend making cards, lettering or practicing lettering, scrapbooking etc…mostly this was due to either self imposed guilt (I should be doing laundry or cleaning or cooking or shopping) or guilt from outside…maybe your mate or partner views what you do a simply irrelevant or unnecessary. The attached article will tell you that is NOT TRUE…we all lead very busy lives and I am certain that I am not the only one over the years that has wondered how did we get to this BUSY LEVEL…I am not suggesting that you can eliminate all of it or even any of it but it is important to give your self time to unwind. So I am just saying that you read this article and give it some thought.

Importance of doing Nothing

Ok now that I have tried to convince you that doing nothing or having a hobby like making cards is a GOOD THING…this is an older technique that Dawn posted and while its a little tedious…its really a lot fun to send and to receive…also this one is Tree…it would work just as well for a heart for valentines day or a large balloon for birthday or if you have a cake image or die that you can cut out …remember you need two of them and they need to go back to back or if you image won’t reverse (i.e. it doesn’t line up when flipped over) you can simply cut a solid paper and use it for the back of the image. Anyway here is the link to DAWN’S FLOATING CHRISTMAS CARD

DAWN’S FLOATING CHRISTMAS CARD

In addition while she is using an oval opening you can make it a square or a circle again with a border…you need the border in order to have a place to adhere the cord or fishing line ( my preference) to allow the die cut image to float. Also if you gently twist the floating image and hold it in place while you put it in the envelope when the person opens the envelope and pulls card out it will untwist…which is a fun surprise …don’t twist too much or you will unfasten your cord/line…

I am also attaching a old pattern that I have for the square flip flop card ( it has other names but it does flip back and forth ). There are dies out there by sizzix I think that are the square and also circle and then a few others that are similar but with multiple openings. However this pattern works well on a ½ sheet of paper. As always cut on solid lines and score on dotted lines… I had drawn this pattern but I believe someone else did this particular one and I can’t find mine…. kudos to whoever…you should be able to click on this and print it on letter size paper then cut one out and use old file folder to cut a template to reuse over and over…

kh flip flop pattern

I also wanted to share with you that I am a huge STAR WARS FAN and I have found a few stickers for current STAR WARS…SO I am using them to make BIRTHDAY CARDS and telling the recipient …MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU… all year long…BTW..if you decide to see the movie…I highly recommend that you see it in both 3D and IMAX… its amazing…and worth the extra cost… but then I am a fan..here is copy of my flipper (round) card with STAR WARS STICKERS…( i found mine at the grocery in the card aisle..)

kh round flipper closed

kh round flipper open

NOW ITS TIME FOR EYE CANDY…my sweetie has been living with me for 44 yrs and so he has accepted the fact that one never knows what is art material and what is trash …a question he frequently asks before throwing away stuff…. he cracked up when I showed him the following two sites and firmly replied that he was not saving TP tubes…lol but you might want to sneak a few…so check out these sites….

Toilet Paper Roll sculptures…amazing eye candy this person has cut tiny images and fitted them inside a tube that used to have toilet paper wrapped around it… just so incredible…

More TP ARTWORK…WHO knew that toilet paper tubes had so many artsy uses… this one is more my style simply because its squished rolls that have been colored and turned into faces…..I swear that one of them looks like THE TRUMP…lmao in any case they are both too amazing… may have to start saving my tubes…

GREETINGS... I recently spent a few days in VICTORIA, BC…and also hit all my favorite stores…one of them being the PAPERY…which just in case you go is located on FORT street just beyond the mall side entrance. IN any case they never disappoint me with their wonderful little treasures…and this one is one I have seen folded before but I don’t think ever saw it done to use as a gift card holder… I loved it…. so I put the pattern together for you and its going to be below and I am also going to show you my RAFFLE SCRIPT…I recently had to do well actually I volunteered to do 50 WEATHERGRAMS to be given away to members of my NIB’N’INKS calligraphy paper celebrating our 35th year in operation. ELIZABETH WALSH started/founded this group in Olympia WA some 35 years ago and its still going strong…I don’t get to go to many of the meeting and often not many of the workshops but I still have lots of friends there so I was delighted to be able to share my WEATHERGRAMS with them ..in addition to each WEATHERGRAM they will get a handout written for the VALLEY CALLIGRAPHY GROUP in EUGENE OREGON by ARDYTH BROWN AND EDIE ROBERTS… it gives all the particulars on how to make a WEATHERGRAM and how to use them…if you don’t know check my previous blog on WEATHERGRAMS…just type the WORD WEATHERGRAM into the search box and it should come up then tap that title and it will take you to the site… so I started looking a some of monoline letters and this one is one that my friend Tory gave me a raffle ticket with part of the letters on it and I made up the rest of the alphabet for it and then called it RAFFLE cause that was the inspiration… I like these they are quite playful and sometimes…actually often I get bored with the sentiments stamps as they are always in a straight line and usually done with very boring letters…so i write the sentiment down and then I use it on my cards but in one of my own hands/scripts this is not a script for a sympathy card but it is great for trying to cheer someone up with a funny card or birthdays or especially kid cards as kids like things that don’t go in straight lines……HEY that must mean I am still a kid….so here is both a minuscule set of letters ( lower case) and a capital set of letters ( Majuscule )…

Both were written with the large end of the ZIG WRITER pen …I like to do my exemplars with larger letters so that you can see them better and see exactly what I am doing…in this case please NOTE that initial stroke of each letter has a very small dot…as does the end of the curlique. These are meant to be subtle so don’ t over board with them.

Since I made up most of these letters myself I do feel that if you decide to share this with others or if you decide to teach this script you need to leave my name on it as the source…and if your are teaching you can certainly share a copy of my exemplars but you should always TEACH FROM YOUR OWN exemplar or you letters that you demo won’t match the letters on your hand out… and if you can’t write it yourself how can you teach it…just saying…sorry thats the teacher in me…. any way make some WEATHERGRAMS or try this and use these letters for your words… PRACTICE FIRST…then write on your card…lol… you know that…

ORIGAMI GIFT CARD HOLDER

ORIGAMI GIFT CARD HOLDER FROM PAPERY

I LOVED the use of the button to hold the card closed… and here is one I made using birthday paper(outside unfolded)

Inside unfolded

Those of you with type A personality will notice that I don’t have the writing running in the best direction that is because I didn’t have enough of the paper to run correctly …you’ll see from the directions below…

kh bamboo gift card holder

Now this one when folded will in fact be running in the correct direction…ok this is really an easy fold but I did it in steps with photos so here goes….

CUT YOUR PAPER 8 5/8 X 9 7/8...(YES, THIS MEANS YOU CAN’T USE REGULAR CARD STOCK …THIS is not really a problem as you should do this with a very light weight paper NOT CARD STOCK…use gift wrap or 12 x 12 text weight… sorry but these are the closest I can get to our MEASUREMENTS as this was made using METRIC measurement…ie cm instead of inches… so I kinda made an adjustment to make it easier for us to do this..If you try smaller it will not hold your card…if you are folding money or a check into this then go ahead and use the 8 ½ x 9 7/8 and do the folds the same.

FOLD YOU PAPER IN HALF WITH THE good side facing inside along the 9 7/8 measuresince mine was white this didn’t show up so I skipped this photo.

NEXT fold both the left and the right sided into the center fold..as shown.

ok so far so good… next open it back up and fold each corner into the second score line that you just made…

Now REFOLD the flap on the left and then the flap on the right into the center score line as before….

Now FLIP IT OVER and fold each end up to the point of the triangle opening… they are going to over lap but once you put the next little filler paper in there you are going to slip one inside the other so it its ok…

Now cut a piece of light card stock 4 x 3 3/8s and slip it into one of the triangle pockets then slip one side of the triangle pockets into the other side triangle pocket and you will get this

you will have to wiggle them a little to get it together and then fold it in half and VIOLA…you have a gift card holder that will hold a plastic gift card…. they used just twine and a button to slip over it and you can use that or piece of ribbon or a belly band your choice… oK hope this works for you I loved it.

CALLIGRAPHY EYE CANDY.. I am in several well two really envelope exchanges i.e. we mail out decorated envelopes each month to different person and I recently got this one from a friend BEV ALLEN …I am an admirer of her work and I asked if I could share this with you… you may also remember that some time back I shared the AKIM CURSIVE script with you and that I mentioned that I had originally received it in a envelope exchange and it to was from BEV ALLEN.. one very talented lady…

I FREELY admit that this is totally based on Dawn’s Rudolph candy cane holder…it was so cute but I wanted to be able to mail this attached to a card or stand alone so… I attempted a few changes….

1 I removed all the tabs at the bottom of the box so now could be made with 4 ¾ x 6 because it won’t fold flat if you leave the flaps on the bottom..

2) I liked the snowman best so I cut a white piece for over the black at 2 ¾ x 5 ½…I found that if you use a lighter weight paper and glue /tape it in place unsecured you can then just re score the first set and and you won’t have to match up the score lines

3) I just ran a ribbon thru the punch outs to try to make it look more like his hat I did in fact put the punch outs in….. then run the ribbon through and just tied it in a knot rather than a bow.

My sample is for a NEW YEAR’S EVE PARTY where we are each have to write down an answer to a question I come up with each year… this year’s question was a TIME TRAVEL…you can go back in time and no matter how long you stay when you return only 2 minutes will have passed… ( I borrowed this idea from STEPHEN KING’S 11/22/63..great read and not scary…its time travel) So my snowmen say DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC…on the side but for birthdays I am going to write on them YOU MUST BELIEVE IN MAGIC…. cause you still LOOK 39…. or Wishing you a MAGICAL Birthday….or its SNOWBUDDY’S business how old you are…Mostly I just loved the snowman and wanted to use him on a card.

so go check out her video and see how she does it then either make her’s or mine..

Come on its almost a new year…. get those creative juices flowing…

My snowman version…

I love snowmen and using this one for a card I like to say “it’s SNOWBUDDIES business how old you are”….lol…or maybe…Hooray for you…another 365 days around the sun….

ok now for some EYE CANDY

WATER,PEN, AND INK.….This is a lovely idea even if you don’t letter but only draw….I am certain that they are using watercolor paper…and the smoother the better…ie HOT PRESS sheets cut smaller..if you want to letter…but the wobbley letters look good to me too so just water color paper will work…I am going to try it and then I’ll post my result .

These are just some of the CHRISTMAS CARDS i received in 2014 oh and two are NEW YEAR’S CARDS… great idea .

I know its hard to see but this was a lovely card from my sweet Auntie with a dry embossed image of reindeer and trees and house at the bottom…

Margi Long’s new years card

I love this saying the end on the front and a Happy beginning to 2015… on brown craft paper

Linda O’Neill

Stephanie ‘s cdPatti’s cd

Aaarrgghh …almost forgot these two TOP IS from my BFF STEPHANIE AND THE BOTTON ONE IS FROM my TALENTED COUSIN PATTI

Linda’s husband Tim takes the most incredible photographs and she used one of them for her christmas card this year on black paper and nice touch adding the snowflake

ENVELOPES TOO!

TOP ENVY IS LINDA O’NEILL’S…..MIDDLE IS SHARON CLYMER’S AND BOTTOM ONE IS CAROL DU BOSCH’S..

This is Carol Du Bosch’s card one my and best calligraphy teachers from Portland

more enys

Top ENVY IS FROM SHANNON SAVAGR…MIDDLE IS FROM JADIE IN SEQUIM FROM AN ENVELOPE EXCHANGE …BOTTOM IS FROM ELIZABETH WALSH

ENVY

THIS LAST ENVY is also from an Envelope Exchange that I belong to and was done by Linda Jolly.

So you see with all these wonderful cards and envelopes I am a very lucky girl… SO ITS AN NEW YEAR AND TIME TO GET THOSE CREATIVE JUICES FLOWING… I am working on my ENVELOPE FOR THE GRACEFUL ENVELOPE CONTEST… I try to enter every year I have had a few wins and a couple of honorable mentions but I don’t really worry about winning its the challenge of coming up with and idea… and here is a link to the info in case you want to challenge yourself the them this year is HOME… give it a try …AND WHILE you are the site… you can go back and see all the wonderful winning and honorable mention envelopes for all the years this contest has been running.. more EYE CANDY than you can imagine..

Ok we are starting off and I have lots of ideas and so does DAWN AND SCS…SO HERE’S TO YEAR OF CREATIVITY AND FUN…

Have no idea where I saw this probably on FB someone sent it too me and it just cracked (no pun intended) me…so had to share it…happy halloween

I am getting back my southern accent as we will among our souther family soon. lol I have to share this with you because it is soooo WEIRD and I have never had it happen before. You should know that I have a thing for PURSES AND SHOES… I am pretty sure its heredity as my Mom has a thing for SHOES AND WATCHES…lol.. anyway best I can remember I bought this great pair of ECCO flats about 2006 or so as is often the case with me I kept saving them i.e. never wearing them… until last FRIDAY when I pulled them out and since it was raining this looked like a good choice… well I noticed right away that my feet were sticking a bit to the wood floor but I looked at the bottoms and decided it was just because they had never been worn YET!!! So I just ignored it and went to dinner with friends…next day I put them on again as we were heading to visit a few days with my Aunt and Uncle. Again something I never do is pack ONLY ONE PAIR OF SHOES…in this case I did have flip flops in the side pouch for use in the hotel room.. but otherwise I had only this new pair I was wearing which while still sticking a little were very comfortable…

We stopped for gas just before arriving at destination and I reached down to get my purse off floor and noticed that while My hubby had put new clean floor mats in car two days ago mine was full of crud…but I grabbed my purse and headed to bathroom. On my way back I noticed that the rocky area seemed to be poking thru shoes i.e. it was poking me in the foot…. I got in car removed my shoe and this is what I found

my old new shoes

As you can see the tops and iside are perfectly new …however the bottom was shedding rubber like one of this wheel things you see on the side of the freeway… pieces were falling off in huge hunks and my foot would have been exposed to ground if not for the leather lining on the inside …. I was AMAZED… I did not know that your shoes can literally fall apart when they are not worn… they were not kept in the heat and in fact they were stored in a box with the no moisture thingie in the box and wrapped in tissue… SO MY TIP FOR THE YEAR IS DON’T SAVE SHOES…wear those babies before you have a major wardrobe malfunction and have to go buy another pair of shoes just to get through the weekend…also NEVER pack only one pair of shoes.. lmao…. ok onto LETTERS

KH FANTASY FRIDAY SCRIPT

I was recently confined to the couch with my leg up due to some minor surgery and so there was a lot of TV watching going on and I was watching DUNE on the SCIFI station and it was a friday so they kept showing this screen that said FANTASY FRIDAY and I had paper and pencil handy plus my phone so I took picture of the screen and then started playing with the monoline script…obviously its it is a font but I had no idea what it was called and didn’t feel like trying to find it so I just decided to go with the letters they had on the screen and then make up the rest of them… for the most part it is a tall, narrow set of letters and the special effects are that they used dots for crossbars on the A,E, F, H…. then I decide to also add the dot to the center of the O…. and I suggested that if that was enough you could add it the Q and maybe the U or P as well.

I would not suggest that you use the dot in the center of any of the other letters with bowls like B,D to me that is just too much. But hey its ok to play…

The pen I used to write the exemplar is the WRITER by ZIG …

This and my SAKURA GLAZE GEL (black) are my go to pens for lettering and this one is the one I use to write my exemplars most of the time… mainly due to the fact that it has two size tips/nibs …a large bullet on one end and a small not really a bullet but a fine point on the other end… both tips last well beyond the amount of ink i.e. they don’t wear out they run out…the large bullet doesn’t get mushy like a sharpie will and while they are permanent ink on both ends they don’t bleed through your papers like a sharpie will.

Also I like to show you the letters in a larger than you will probably use except for single words or names on envelopes…it is easier to see what the letters really look like when written large then taking them down to the smaller size gives you a better idea of what is possible for greetings in/on your cards.

This is not just a DISPLAY (meaning that it best be used only for single words and not sentences or phrases)..but it is clean and easily legible so that it can work for even a long letter if you chose to write one with it.

So as you can see I love letters and love looking at them and writing them so here is fun new script that maybe will work with your Christmas cards… yes, its time to start thinking about that… SO practice and play.

This is an incredible technique and you need to watch her video to see exactly how she does it and she is using WATERBASED MARKERS, in her case the distress markers and distress ink pads that are dye based and NOT waterproof..the colors would be some different but you could also try using the TOMBOW water based markers with the brush end…I do believe that the tree stamp is stamped in permanent black dye ink. There are a lot of layers here and they are by necessity going to make your paper wet so as she suggested you need to use watercolor paper for best results…even heavy card stock will start to “PILL” up with this much moisture on it…and if you want really smooth watercolor paper then try buying the hot press…in a large sheet ..then cutting it up…

Now the LAZY STAMPER IN ME…would never want to do more than one of these cards but the LAZY STAMPER is also resourceful so what I would say is if you like this a lot then DO ONE perfect one and then either scan it into your computer and print it on photo paper or take it to Kinko’s or some printing shop and print it there on color/photo paper and cut it to fit on your cards… yes, they are only getting a copy but its a lot of work and maybe there only one someone who would really appreciate the original or perhaps save it for your own portfolio… REMEMBER this is the LAZY STAMPER talking not the perfectionist who would make one for each person or maybe like my friend Steph you might enjoy the process so making multiples is not a problem for you… In any case I wanted to share the technique with you… ENJOY

EYE CANDY WESTERN AUSTRAILIA CALLIGRAPHERSthis is a link to ISDI college Mumbai..I am linking you to this FB page and you should be able to open it even if you don’t have a FB account if you look at both the first video on the top left and the one down on the right with the man bent over a huge strip of paper those are the ones I really wanted to share… the MAN is ACHYUT PALAV… and he has his own web site as well abut the video on the Western Austrailia FB PAGE is not on his web site… but he is lettering with so many different tools and they are not your usual calligraphic tools but the results are fantastic and the number of students in the workshop is incredible also.

The first one at the top is just various types of letters all done with a regular ( well maybe a more flexible ) fountain pen and its incredible also… if you have a Face Book account I recommend you follow this group as they have some wonderful stuff…

This next picture is the pop up box card that I posted a few weeks ago and this one was a birthday one done by my most talented friend JANIS BLEVINS… had to share it cause it was just to great…

Janis’s pop up box

Ok that’s it for this week… AS ALWAYS THANKS FOR STOPPIN BY…wire headed cyber toad….aka kath

Ok my calligraphy buddies and those of you who like to play with funky letters this blog is for you….

MARY ANNE RADAMACHER is a wonderful card designer who has always used her own playful lettering styles. I first met/discovered her in CANNON BEACH OREGON where she started making unique cards with wonderful little quotes and sayings on them. SHE now has a website and sells her cards nationally. Her original cards all had little squares of paper then used SQUIGGLES to make a unique mark on the little square and while all of that was wonderful and made the cards very lovely the best part was her wonderful quote and if you check out her web site you will see there are several of them and she sorta has them in categories like GRADUATION, NEW HOUSE etc…this is the AMAZON link to her books and some of them are even available in digital format for Kindle…LOVE IT..I have several of her original books which I am guessing were more self published and now they have lovely colors on them… some of her quotes which I really love are COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES…I AM NOT THE SAME HAVING SEEN THE MOON ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD....and my most favorite I COME TO SEE TO BREATHE….aaarrrggghhh Can’t believe I did that….it should have read...I COME TO THE SEA TO BREATHE…

Last year she shared a new alphabet that she had been playing with , with the calligraphy groups PENINSULA SCRIBES and NIB ‘N’ INKS..both in Washington state… I am sharing them with you and here is my exemplar .

kath harney’s exemplar of Mary Anne Radamacher’s letters

The fun/funky part of this alphabet is the addition of color…and you can see from my notes that I used a couple of different ways to add the color… You will also see from the sample of her own letters below that she picks and chooses which letters to add the color too..ie sometimes she colors in the O and sometimes she doesn’t again this would be your choice as well…

Mary Anne Radamcher

kath’s lettering

I used the SAKURA GLAZE BLACK PEN to write the letters and on the Happy Birthday I used the H20’s…and on BREATHE…I just used colored pencils. I also wrote both of these on a scrape of water color paper…..and the other letters are my akim lettering. Oh yes,…my HINT…do your writing in pencil first then you can trace over it with the GLAZE PEN. May help to avoid mistakes….

So I hope you have fun with this lettering and that you will just allow yourself to play.

She has lots of different cards and uses lots of different stamps not just STAMPIN UP although there are some STAMPIN UP stamps, papers etc…anyway I thought you might enjoy them so hope over and take a look. This was one of her designs… not find the exact embossing pen she mentions so I tried a couple of others and her were my results.

the pens I used all came from AMAZON and as you may have guessed one of them writes black , one white or clear and the third one clear….I used black and white embossing powder..the pens are WOW EMBOSSING PEN. the white and black come as a set by RANGER CALLED EMBOSS IT PEN… (please note the above images are not good due to my embossing powder not the pens…pens work great )

Then I also I also ordered a pack of zig embossing pens with various tips… some calligraphy some brush… I got them from Amazon… and here is what they looked like…so I really liked them also… each of them comes in double ended so I wrote with the larger size of each and I didn’t do the writer /bullet tip one cause its the same as the the other tips I already showed you… the Brush one writes in clear but the others all write in blue so that’s helpful in seeing where and what you wrote… just enjoy but if you are looking for variety the pack is the best…again all available from AMAZON. So now you can emboss your writing.

Since we are on calligraphy and lettering I am sharing a photo a friend my posted from our days of going to workshops at MENUCHA outside of Portland..I don’t know when this was taken but I do know we were all younger and just seeing this made me think of how much I miss them all.

EYE CANDY

I love this video and thought you would enjoy it also….a good reminder that we don’t need a lot of tools or accessories ….just a few pens and some coffee cups..COFFEE CUP ART.

ONE MORE… you know I spend a good deal of time in south florida and in addition I actually grew up here…..is one of my favorite artists..CLYDE BUTCHER and THE BIG CYPRESS SWAMP. Clyde is famous for his black and white photos mostly of FLORIDA but he does have images from other places as well…this video of the swamp will make you want to go there but not in summer …that’s when the bugs and humidity will make it better to just look at the video…lol… it is a beautiful place.

HAHAHAHAHA… thought you would all get a laugh out of this and since I am well into my HALLOWEEN MODE… get ready cause it may be a bumpy or repetitive ride..lol

I spent last weekend with a bunch of calligraphy /card/ book/scrapper/ie PAPER FREAKS…lol.. we had demo’s on some of the paper equipment and then lots of us were busy making halloween cards… so here we go with one of my favorites… and I am so embarrassed to say that I have no idea where I got this idea… I don’t think it was mine I think I either saw a ready made card or something that triggered my decision to try this..

YOUR BASE CARD IS STANDARD 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 folded…

THEN YOU SIMPLY CUT OF THE TOP CORNERS TO CREATE A HOUSE LOOK.

THEN USING A PUNCH OF YOUR CHOICE I MAKE A HOLE IN THE FRONT OF THE CARD TO SERVE AS A WINDOW…YOU CAN MAKE A FRAME AROUND IT OR YOU CAN JUST LIGHTLY INK AROUND THE CUT . IT’S PRETTY SIMPLE AND WHILE I LIKE TO MAKE IT CROOKED BY CUTING ONE SIDE LONG AND ONE SIDE SHORT SO THAT IT LOOKS MORE HALLOWEENY…BUT IF YOU ARE USING IT as a birthday or my house to your house type of thing then you can make it straighter…you can also add a small rectangle to have a chimney if you wish…

THEN I USE AN XACTO to cut a door and a small brad to for a door know and I either stamp people or words on the inside of the card for when the door is opened..

Ok if a picture is worth a 1000 words here are a few thousand…

MY SPIDEY HOUSE CARD

INSIDE MY SPIDEY HOUSE

BOTH the outside and the inside of this one had charms fastened on with the use of the tacking tool ( the one you use to price things ) in the window at the top is a metal web/spider and the little witch behind the door is carring a tiny TRICK OR TREAT bag..

house with windowscreen and owl… kh

THEN I HAD TO TAKE A TRIP TO LOWE’S with my HUBBY…

house with owl/screen

NOW I hate going to Lowe’s about as much as my Hubby would hate going to a paper store with me… but It was necessary so after I picked out what I was supposed to I wandered off …. suddenly I was in the screen replacing section and I found a 6 ft by 36 inch roll of screening ( the plastic kind not metal) for only 8$….my brain went into over drive and the above was my first effort… ( well actually I spend about 30 minutes cutting the screen up into about 9×12 pieces so it would be easier to use.. ) next I went ohhhhh I could put screen in the window on the house card and then I went to my owl punch . Now if you think the owl looks like he has a copper vest …BINGO… years ago I bought pieces of copper to use to emboss on /with and I also got a cool little lighter so that if you flame the copper (USE TWEEZERS TO HOLD IT AND BE CAREFUL IT WILL GET QUITE HOT) it comes out kinda multicolored…so I thought lets give HOOTY a jazzy vest… so what do you think..the blue words above will link you to AMAZON in case you want to get a lighter. I liked this because there is a very tiny flame but very hot…its a wire and so with all the paper I have around me at all times….lol… I thought this might be safer than use a regular cigarette light but that will work also just watch that flame….my owl is from the STAMPIN UP punch that mentioned when I was talking about the tent cards and making it into a BAT….ps that little squirrel brad just jumped into the card and I didn’t have the heart to chase him away… lol…

HALLOWEEN LETTERS

OK I am kinda claiming ownership or actually developement of these letters… they are based on a single word that I saw on another exemplar years ago and I am again sorry to say I have no idea whose they are or if credit was even given…but the word was ANGST…and they did write it with a chisel ( calligraphy ) nib….but I decided to play with it and make up a complete alphabet…and at the time I was using a brush pen..more than likely a TOMBOW …but almost any brush will work… Like all the letter exemplars I share YOU SHOULD PRACTICE at least the words you want to write but ideally the whole alphabet so you get a feel for it before you attempt it on a card… you know its the old measure twice cut once principle… get you hand into the flow before you actually work on your card.

BRUSH EXEMPLAR OF HALLOWEEN LETTERS BY KATH

kath’s brush halloween letters

As you can see this was done with a smaller brush than the tombow I used a PITT ARTIST PEN by Faber Castell as it has a smaller brush tip… you can usually find them in open stock at Michaels, and maybe in sets at ARRON BROS. You can also find (sometimes) the ZIg MICRON BRUSHS…also smaller… or you can resort to ink and a small paintbrush …ok if you are shaking your head at all of these… option number two

kath’s halloween letters

These were done with my Zig Writer the small end… I can’t actually show you the stroke I use with either the brush or the pen…but its basically a FLICKING MOTION… I place the pen on the page and rather than draw a line down….I FLICK…this gets that streaky effect at the end of the stroke or the tail of the letter… again I highly recommend that you play with that a little before you start… but remember too that these are not perfect letters as they are supposed to look spooky…